CI Global Asset Management Announces Lower Management Fee and Launch of ETF Series for CI Floating Rate Income Fund

Fund is a category leader for cost and performance

 

TORONTO (February 22, 2022) – CI Global Asset Management (“CI GAM”) today announced a significant reduction in the management fee of the top-performing CI Floating Rate Income Fund (the “Fund”), along with plans to launch an ETF series of the Fund – both timely moves designed to help Canadians manage the investment risks of inflation and rising interest rates.

Effective immediately, the maximum management fees of Series F and A of the Fund have been reduced by 40 basis points to flat fees of 0.35% and 0.85%, respectively. CI GAM believes this change will result in CI Floating Rate Income Fund having the lowest Series F management fee in the category.

The Fund has posted exceptional performance, being the top-performing fund in its category from its inception on June 1, 2017 to January 31, 2022. Additionally, it holds a five-star rating from Morningstar Canada and was the winner of a 2021 FundGrade A+^® Award.¹

CI GAM has filed a prospectus amendment to offer ETF C$ Series units of the Fund, which are expected to begin trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) on or about April 19, 2022 under the ticker symbol CFRT, subject to TSX approval. The ETF C$ Series units will have a management fee of 0.35%.

“This combination of performance and lower cost makes CI Floating Rate Income Fund a compelling choice for income investors in today’s environment,” said Marc-André Lewis, Head of Investment Management for CI GAM.

“Floating rate investments can diversify fixed-income portfolios and help to mitigate the impact of rising interest rates. Investors in the Fund also benefit from the deep expertise of the entire CI Global Asset Management fixed-income team, as our portfolio managers actively manage the allocations to asset classes and exercise deep due diligence in selecting individual holdings, which is crucial in managing high-yield securities.”

CI Floating Rate Income Fund is designed to provide a regular income stream by investing in higher-yielding floating rate debt securities such as bonds and loans, as well as short-term high-yield and investment grade bonds and floating rate preferred shares. Given that interest rates paid by loans and floating rate bonds typically reset quarterly, such securities offer a hedge against rising interest rates. In comparison, the prices of fixed-income securities such as government bonds tend to decline as interest rates move up.

The capital markets currently expect the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada to each raise policy rates by about six times this year, starting next month, to counter higher rates of inflation.

The management fees of these series of CI Floating Rate Income Fund have been changed as follows:

Fund Series	Previous Maximum Management Fee	New Flat Management Fee	Administration Fee
A	1.25%	0.85%*	0.17%
F	0.75%	0.35%*	0.17%
P	0.75%	0.35%	0.17%
E	1.20%	0.85%	0.15%
EF	0.70%	0.35%	0.15%
O	0.70%	0.35%	0.15%
ETF C$ Series (new)	-	0.35%	0.17%

*Under the new flat fee model, CI Prestige management and administration fee reductions/distributions are no longer applicable.

 

About CI Global Asset Management

CI Global Asset Management is one of Canada’s largest investment management companies. It offers a wide range of investment products and services and is on the Web at www.ci.com. CI Global Asset Management is a subsidiary of CI Financial Corp. (TSX: CIX, NYSE: CIXX), an integrated global asset and wealth management company with approximately $384.1 billion in assets as of December 31, 2021.

 

1) Performance and rankings

 

	1 year	3 years	Since Inception (June 1, 2017)
CI Floating Rate Income Fund (Series F)	5.3%	5.1%	4.0%
Morningstar Rating (Overall: 5 stars)	n/a	5 stars	n/a
Category fund rank	#2	#1	#1
Number of funds in category	95	89	77

Category is Floating Rate Loans; Source: Morningstar Research Inc., as of January 31, 2022. Category fund rank excludes USD virtual class fund series and represent the absolute return rank relative to category peers. Being ranked as the #1 fund means that no other fund outperformed it from an absolute return perspective over the trailing period.

™2022 Morningstar and the Morningstar Rating are registered trademarks of Morningstar Research Inc. All rights reserved.

 

^©2022 Morningstar Research Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

 

The Morningstar Absolute Quartile Rankings are compiled by sorting the funds by returns relative to the mutual funds within the same peer group and range from 1 to 4 for all time periods covered and can change monthly. The top performing 25% of funds in each fund category are assigned a ranking of 1, the next 25% a 2, etc.

 

Morningstar Ratings reflect performance as of January 31, 2022 and are subject to change monthly. The ratings are calculated from a fund’s 3, 5 and 10-year returns measured against 91-day Treasury bill and peer group returns. For each time period the top 10% of the funds in a category get five stars. The Overall Rating is a weighted combination of the 3, 5 and 10-year ratings. For greater detail see www.morningstar.ca.

 

CI Floating Rate Income Fund received a FundGrade A+ Award for the year 2021 in the CIFSC Floating Rate Loan category, which included 57 funds. The time period used to calculate the award was 1/31/2018 – 12/31/21.

 

FundGrade A+^® is used with permission from Fundata Canada Inc., all rights reserved. The annual FundGrade A+^® Awards are presented by Fundata Canada Inc. to recognize the “best of the best” among Canadian investment funds. The FundGrade A+^® calculation is supplemental to the monthly FundGrade ratings and is calculated at the end of each calendar year. The FundGrade rating system evaluates funds based on their risk-adjusted performance, measured by Sharpe Ratio, Sortino Ratio, and Information Ratio. The score for each ratio is calculated individually, covering all time periods from 2 to 10 years. The scores are then weighted equally in calculating a monthly FundGrade. The top 10% of funds earn an A Grade; the next 20% of funds earn a B Grade; the next 40% of funds earn a C Grade; the next 20% of funds receive a D Grade; and the lowest 10% of funds receive an E Grade. To be eligible, a fund must have received a FundGrade rating every month in the previous year. The FundGrade A+^® uses a GPA-style calculation, where each monthly FundGrade from “A” to “E” receives a score from 4 to 0, respectively. A fund’s average score for the year determines its GPA. Any fund with a GPA of 3.5 or greater is awarded a FundGrade A+^® Award. For more information, see www.FundGradeAwards.com. Although Fundata makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data contained herein, the accuracy is not guaranteed by Fundata.

 

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) investments. Please read the prospectus before investing. The indicated rates of return are the historical annual compound total returns net of fees and expenses payable by the fund (except for figures of one year or less, which are simple total returns) including changes in security value and reinvestment of all distributions and do not take into account sales, redemption, distribution or optional charges or income taxes payable by any securityholder that would have reduced returns. Mutual funds and ETFs are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. You will usually pay brokerage fees to your dealer if you purchase or sell units of an ETF on recognized Canadian exchanges. If the units are purchased or sold on these Canadian exchanges, investors may pay more than the current net asset value when buying units of the ETF and may receive less than the current net asset value when selling them.

 

This communication is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase mutual funds managed by CI Global Asset Management and is not, and should not be construed as, investment, tax, legal or accounting advice, and should not be relied upon in that regard. Every effort has been made to ensure that the material contained in this document is accurate at the time of publication.  Individuals should seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding any particular investment. Investors should consult their professional advisors prior to implementing any changes to their investment strategies. These investments may not be suitable to the circumstances of an investor.

 

The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect the current expectations of CI GAM regarding future results or events and are based on information currently available to them. Certain material factors and assumptions were applied in providing these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. CI GAM believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions; however, CI GAM can give no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. Readers, therefore, should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. Further, a forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made. CI GAM undertakes no obligation to publicly update any such statement or to reflect new information or the occurrence of future events or circumstances except as required by securities laws. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release.

 

CI Global Asset Management is a registered business name of CI Investments Inc.

 

©CI Investments Inc. 2022.  All rights reserved.  

Contact:

Murray Oxby

Vice-President, Corporate Communications

CI Global Asset Management

416-681-3254

moxby@ci.com